Description: This composite image of X-rays from Chandra and optical data from Hubble shows new details of the aftermath of a massive star that exploded and was visible from Earth over 1,000 years ago. The Chandra image shows an outer blast wave produced by the supernova (blue) and an inner ring of cooler (red-orange) material. By examining the spectra of the X-rays, astronomers have new information about the geometry of the remnant, which, in turns, has implications for the nature of this explosion.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2009

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/e0102/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Gift line: X-ray (NASA/CXC/MIT/D.Dewey et al. & NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale); Optical (NASA/STScI)